This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau found the grey 1995 Toyota Corolla on Kijiji just hours after it was posted Monday by a University of Ottawa student helping her dad sell the family car they had owned for years.

“Now that I think about it, I get really scared, like this man could have harmed us,” said the student, who did not want to be named when she spoke to the Star Friday.

The owner speaks little English, so his daughter fielded inquiries by telephone and text message for her father. Zehaf-Bibeau was one of several calls she got about the car that day.

“He seemed very nice over the phone,” she said, adding he spoke unaccented English.

Article Continued Below

The woman, who has been interviewed twice by the RCMP, described a man bent on buying their rusted family sedan.

“He just said he needs a car. Like, ‘It’s hard for me to get around town. I need a car and I need to buy it soon,” the woman told the Star Friday.

It was advertised for $700, but he tried to get it for $500, saying that was the most he could withdraw in one day. She refused and he offered to come at midnight, when he could access the rest of the money.

She said that was too late, so Zehaf-Bibeau showed up at 7 a.m. Tuesday, banging on the door and waking the family.

Her father met him at the door and came away with a very different impression of the long-haired man. The pair went to the Service Ontario office at the Westgate shopping centre on Carling Ave. to get paperwork for the sale completed.

Zehaf-Bibeau became agitated and began yelling while in line outside the office.

“My father said ‘This man was crazy.’ My father didn’t really understand what he was talking about, because he doesn’t understand English that well, but he was like ‘This man was crazy. He was arguing with everybody and constantly saying, ‘f---, f---, f---,’ and he was always shaking his head and his hair, because he had long hair, my father said, and he was shaking his hair and just fidgeting,” the woman recalled.

At one point a clerk told him to quiet down. Once it was his turn, the clerk told him he did not have the proper identification to complete the transaction. His driver’s license was from another province and he needed at least one more piece of identification.

Zehaf-Bibeau decided to try his luck at another location, this time at Bank St. and Walkley Rd., where again he was loud, obnoxious and fidgeting, the woman said.

At one point, he asked if he could just borrow the car with the licence plates still on.

“I just need the car for one day, I need to do something. I need to use it to get around town. Is it possible I could keep the licence plates on?” Zehaf-Bibeau asked the father, according to the woman.

Her father said no, because he needed to keep the plates.

Zehaf-Bibeau arranged to have his missing information faxed to the Service Ontario office, using a calling card at a pay phone to reach someone who could help send it.

It was going to take about 90 minutes, so the car’s owner decided to do his portion of the paperwork and leave Zehaf-Bibeau to wait for new licence plates. The owner gave him the keys and left between 11 a.m. and noon on Tuesday, his daughter said, after Zehaf-Bibeau talked him down to $650 and paid in cash.

It’s unclear if Zehaf-Bibeau ever received new licence plates for the car.

“I can confirm that we had a loud individual at those locations on that day but I cannot confirm the identity of the individual or the nature of their business,” said Anne-Marie Flanagan, spokeswoman for Service Ontario.

The car did not have licence plates when he drove up to the national war memorial and shot and killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo.

Delivered dailyThe Morning Headlines Newsletter

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com